THE groundwork was laid early, the battle lines set in stone. What has become evident in this misery-driven series is that somewhere along the line, blood is going to spill. Maybe not literally. Maybe not as the result of anything that happens on the court. But egos have been bruised. Personality conflicts have been established. Ill feelings have been solidified.

“I don’t pay attention to the other stuff, man,” Kenyon Martin said yesterday, hours before his Nets would take on the Pistons in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinal. “I don’t waste my energy worrying about who’s saying what about this coach or that player. I mean, I hear it, you know? It’s impossible not to hear it. But I don’t let it bother me. You’re just asking for trouble that way, man.”

Even Martin, in his self-imposed informational boycott, understands he is inescapably linked with the anticipation of Armageddon that accompanies this series. If you think it’s an accident that neither Martin nor his emotionally compatible opponent, Rasheed Wallace, have been able to stay on the floor for more than a few minutes at a time, you aren’t paying attention.

That’s the amusing thing about the NBA in the endless playoff spring of 2004. There are no natural rivalries, no lingering hatreds. Gone are the days when you could count on the Knicks and Heat to renew hostilities every spring, the agitation growing and festering with each passing year. Gone is the heavyweight prizefight atmosphere of the yearly Bulls-Knicks series, or the classic confrontations involving the Celtics and Sixers.

The closest thing the Nets have gotten to stoking a rivalry during their recent run to relevance has been with the Celtics, who pushed them to six games two years ago and tried to set their playoff series last year ablaze with some tough off-court talk; the resulting four-game sweep ended all talk of a rivalry, anyway.

So now we have Nets-Pistons, a series in which there seemed to be lots of potential for establishing some short-term contempt and some long-term rivalry possibilities. The Nets swept the Pistons out of the playoffs last year, but these were different Detroiters, which they proved during the first two games of this series.

Yet, even though the teams entered last night’s game each having held serve, there was something … missing. There was something absent.

Both teams have tried. Larry Brown cleared his throat last week and all but slandered 33-year-old Lawrence Frank’s credentials to coach the team, even though Brown was 33 years old when he received his first coaching gig with the Carolina Cougars of the ABA. Rod Thorn piled on a little bit. Brown bit back.

Rasheed Wallace talked about placing an “asterisk” next to the Nets’ Game 3 victory, thanks to the way he perceived the referees had kept him off the floor (conveniently forgetting Martin’s similar woes with the whistles). Brown talked about the officials, too, and resumed his odd obsession with Frank, his wandering out of the coaching box and stealing signals.

And you know what?

That didn’t get the blood boiling even a little bit. That didn’t get anyone’s inner basketball fire stoked. The Nets are still looking for that rival that gets their fans agitated just thinking about a game pairing the two. Maybe that can still be the Pistons. Maybe the rest of this series will play out the way that first-round series against Indiana did two years ago, when it seemed maybe Pacers-Nets would become something special.

It didn’t, because the teams didn’t get another crack at each other last year. Nets-Pistons still has a chance. The first three games were devoured by double-digit decisions, which stalled the process. But if some of the off-court fire can be transferred onto the floor the next couple of games …